The Ether Conflict Redux
by aGuestfromGreece45
Summary: It's been 10 years since the 6 Great Spires appeared all around the globe and plunged the world into chaos, releasing an almost magical, yet highly destructive power upon the human kind; Ether. Join Miho and her friends as they try to survive in this slowly crumbling world through the only viable way. Blood and violence. (Rewrite of the original The Ether Conflict, alternate AU)
1. Chapter 0: The Day Everything Began

**The Ether Conflict Redux**

**Chapter 0: The Day Everything Began**

* * *

The feel of cold metal. So familiar. So welcoming.

She has felt it so many times.

When wielding her weapon against her enemies, when manning her team's old and trusty tank in the winter, when training in the shooting range of her home.

Yet right now, the feeling of the cold, metal grates scraping against the back of her head as she gets dragged around is anything but welcoming.

She can barely see and hear, all the fatigue and tiredness from being abused daily and given barely any food and water having drained her body of most of its strength and dulled most of her senses almost completely.

Hearing the sound of an automatic door opening, the woman squints her light brown eyes as she's dragged inside a very bright and white room, the sensation on the back of her head changing from metal to ceramic.

"Nngh…" she groans as she turns her head away from the ceiling and the ceiling lights that are almost blinding her.

"Put her in the chair."

Feeling two arms under her armpits, the woman finds herself being lifted up and dragged somewhere, before being pushed roughly down on a metal chair and having her hands handcuffed behind its back.

"Miss Nishizumi Miho, welcome to the interrogation room once again. I hope this time you'll cooperate with us."

Slowly raising her head, she squints slightly as she tries to make out the things in front of her, though her vision is too blurry to discern more than the basic outlines of the table in front of her and the person that sits opposite from her.

"I won't… tell you… where it is…" Miho croaks at the person directly in front of her, a middle-aged woman that wears a lab coat and a pair of glasses with a black frame.

"Would you look at that, still as strong-willed as ever," the woman muses, then looks at one of the two guards flanking her. "Do it."

Without saying a word, the guard grabs Miho by the back of her head and slams her face on the table, the sensation of metal spreading throughout her face as everything blacks out for a moment before the pain kicks in.

"Ghk…! Aaah…" she weakly groans, a burning sensation spreading throughout her face as blood starts seeping from one of her her nostrils down her lips. The guard then raises her head up and lets go, Miho silently grimacing in pain.

"Miss Nishizumi, the Institute is willing to cooperate with you, but only if you cooperate with us as well."

"I won't… tell you… where it is…" Miho repeats and the woman sighs.

"So stubborn…"

Nodding to the guard, he hits Miho's face on the table again.

"If you don't tell us where the artifact is, we will be forced to take drastic measures, and then I won't be able to guarantee your friends' safety," she says to Miho, adjusting her glasses a little.

"If you… hurt them… I'll kill you all…" Miho growls quietly, her eyes flashing red for a moment.

"Then answer me the question. Where is the artifact?"

Miho stays silent for a few moments, before sighing through her nose and averting her gaze on her thighs.

"Fine… I will tell you…"

"Excellent!" the woman says happily.

"But on one condition…"

The woman's happy expression falters for a second, before she chuckles amused.

"Miss Nishizumi, you aren't exactly in a position to-"

"Either this, Miss Yoko… or we can continue our current… cycle… until I break… or die…" Miho cuts off Yoko, raising her head to look at the woman with a severe, albeit bloody, expression. "And you don't… exactly… have the luxury… of time.. on your side…"

"...Very well. And what's this condition?" Yoko asks with a serious expression, not happy a girl almost half her age is basically making demands in the current situation, but really running out of time as her superiors are pressuring her more and more for results.

"That you… let me begin… from the start… from the mission… that started everything…"

"I don't see how this will be helpful to you, but I'll allow it. Though, if I recognize you are simply wasting my time, you'll receive more than a simple beating this time," Yoko warns Miho.

Sighing one more time, Miho slowly lowers her head so that she's gazing at the top of the table.

"...Everything began… a few months ago… We got a… mission… to retrieve… a downed… JSDF drone… that had fallen… at the outskirts… of the terraformed zone…"

* * *

**A few months ago**

**Outskirts of Matsumoto, Japan**

Inside the dorm room of a small, military-looking base that settles at the outskirts of Matsumoto, a certain brown-haired woman soundly sleeps in her bed, comfily tucked under the bedsheets.

_beep… beep… beep… _

"Mmm…" the woman stirs a little as her alarm clock, which sits on top of a small bedstand next to the bed, starts beeping slowly, though she doesn't seem to be waking up from it.

_beep… beep… beep. beep. beep. _

As the beeping starts intensifying, the woman starts stirring more and more, until she finally opens her eyes and turns around to look at the alarm clock, then presses its top with her hand to make it stop.

"Mmm… already seven…" she murmurs aloud, then slowly sits up and rubs her eyes, then stretches her arms.

"Nnngh~! Let's get ready for today."

Opening the curtains that hang behind her bed to let the morning sunlight enter the room through, she then gets out of the bed and makes her way towards the wardrobe that settles at the wall opposite from where the bed is. Opening it, she retrieves from inside a pair of black pants, a short-sleeved, black T-shirt with a small insignia that resembles the head of a wolf with red eyes on the right sleeve, a pair of black socks and her combat boots, then closes it and goes back to her bed.

_Let's turn on the TV to hear the news, _she thinks as she puts her clothes on the bed, then grabs a remote that's on her bedstand and points it towards the nearby TV.

_click _

_"...-a total of thirty-five dead and several dozen injured. JSDF cleaning units immediately rushed on the site and the situation was put under control, with no reports of contamination or poisoning having been reported yet. This marks the third suicide bombing in a major city this month, but the JSDF assures everyone they have already located the ones responsible for these acts of terror and will soon be bringing them to justice."_

The woman looks at the TV as she puts on her socks and pants, the image of an area somewhere in Tokyo, a purple dust covering it and men in hazmat suits going around and spraying some kind of light blue liquid all around the affected area.

"They used Ether? These attacks are seriously getting out of hand…"

_"In other news, peace negotiations with China have broken down yet again, with Beijing demanding the cessation of both the occupied lands and the terraformed zone, with the JSDF leadership curtly rejecting them."_

Shaking her head slightly, the woman puts on her shirt, then sits on the bed to put on her boots.

_"This concludes the morning news. Next up is the documentary "The Six Great Spires: How the world changed after their appearance" and after that the documentary "Ether and the weapons of the future"."_

_How long has it been since they appeared? Eight? Ten years? _she ponders as she finishes tying her boots' laces, then grabs the remote to turn off the TV.

_knock knock_

_"Miss Nishizumi! Are you still sleeping?"_

"Ah! Coming!" the woman calls out. Putting down the remote and standing up, she quickly makes her way towards the room's door and opens it, finding a woman around her height with chin-length, dark brown curly hair and dark brown eyes standing in front of it, as well a tall woman with long black hair that go till her waist and a pair of dark grey eyes.

"Good morning, Yukari, Hana!" she says to the two women respectively, who are wearing the same clothes as her.

"Good morning, Miho," Hana says with a smile as Miho exits her room and closes the door.

"Did you have a good sleep, Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks and Miho nods.

"Yes, I slept fine. Though, where is Saori and Mako?" Miho asks as the three of them start walking down the hallway and towards the mess hall of the base.

"Saori had to carry Mako again, so she took her straight to the mess hall," Hana responds, with Miho chuckling a little at this.

"Hehe, some things never change!" Miho chuckles. "Ah, that reminds me! How did the installation of the new upgrades go, Yukari?"

"Everything's working as expected, Miss Nishizumi! The new laser rangefinder can accurately detect the distance to a target with a margin of error +/- two meters for distances over two kilometers."

"Good. What about the new shells?"

"I've loaded some for field testing, but I've kept most of the normal loadout."

"Great. Next time we need to use the tank for a mission, we'll test the shells," Miho glances at Yukari and nods.

"These new shells should be able to help us deal with most threats we may encounter, save for a main battle tank or a fortification," Hana comments as the girls start descending the stairs that lead from the first floor to the ground floor.

"They better be, or Blackout spent a few million yen for nothing."

Stopping their descent and looking back, the girls find a middle-aged woman with light brown hair that reach just above her shoulders and brown eyes standing at the top of the stairs, wearing a black shirt with a black, unbuttoned coat over it, a black pencil skirt and white Mary Jane shoes. The woman adjusts her glasses slightly, then slowly approaches the girls.

"Miss Misako, good morning!" Miho greets, Haana and Yukari doing the same as the woman stops a step before them.

"Almost a decade, and you still refer to me as a Miss," Misako chuckles for a moment, before raising a manila folder in front of Miho. "Your next assignment."

"Our next assignment? Didn't the Director say we'd not have any work for the rest of the week?" Miho asks as she takes the folder, but does not open it.

"It's an urgent request from the JSDF. A UAV of theirs fell a few kilometers from the outskirts of the terraformed zone, and they asked us to go and retrieve its black box. A JSDF helicopter will be here in an hour and a half to pick you up and transport you at the insertion point, so you better grab breakfast while you can," Misako explains. "And since this is an emergency assignment, your pay will be doubled."

Miho opens the folder and quickly scans its contents, then closes it and looks up to Misako.

"I understand. Then, if you'll excuse us, Miss Misako," Miho says and bows slightly, with Misako nodding in response.

"Stay safe out there," the woman says, before turning around and ascending the stairs, making her way towards the second floor. The girls continue making their way towards the mess hall, though they now walk a bit faster since they don't have all that much time.

"I always wondered why the JSDF employs PMCs for zone-related incidents. Do you think it's because of the bureaucracy?" Yukari wonders aloud as the girls step on the ground floor, then make their way towards the mess hall.

"Most likely they don't want to aggravate the already fragile relationship with China. Using mercenaries means they can freely engage Chinese troops within the zone without fearing repercussions. Or they simply see us as expendables, since many dangers are hidden in there, especially the closer you are to the zone's center," Hana offers an explanation.

"Most likely both," Miho comments as the girls step on the ground floor and take a right turn. "Peace negotiations between Japan and China are quickly failing, and the ceasefire doesn't seem like it will remain for long."

"So much for a peaceful solution… that means we'll have a lot of work again," Yukari sighs, not very fond of their time during the third Sino-Japanese War, when China invaded South Japan amidst the world crisis that was happening.

"If war breaks again, it'll most likely be small skirmishes within the terraformed zone, until one of the sides manages to secure a safe corridor through it to funnel troops on the other side," Miho says as she stops in front of a set of large doors. "Either that, or they try to paradrop troops at the other side of the zone and establish a foothold to bring in soldiers and equipment via air."

Miho then pushes one of the doors open and enters inside the mess hall, which consists of a fairly spacious room that has two long, rectangular, mess hall tables that have a sitting bench on each side, and a counter at the left side of the opposite wall which is where the food is served. In one of the mess hall tables Miho finds two women sitting and eating their breakfast, one with long, ginger-colored hair that go just past her shoulders and a pair of light brown eyes, as well a woman that has thick black hair that go till her waist, and a pair of hazel eyes that are currently looking sleepily at her bowl of rice.

"Saori, Mako, good morning," Miho greets respectively the girls, as she, Hana and Yukari make their way towards the table.

"Ah, Miporin! Good morning!" Saori says as she stops eating for a second, while Mako looks up from her food.

"Morning… _uwaa_," Mako yawns, then fixes the bangs that cover her forehead and readjusts her white headband a little, then notices the folder Miho is holding with her left hand. "New mission…?" she asks, which gets Saori's attention and looks at the folder as well.

"An urgent one from the JSDF. We'll go over it during breakfast," Miho says and places the file on top of the table, then turns to Hana and Yukari. "I'll go get us food, you can take a seat."

"Alright, Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari says as she and Hana take a seat, Mako already having opened the manila folder and reading the documents it has inside, Saori leaning a bit closer to her to read as well.

"Ask for a bit extra~!" Hana says to Miho, who chuckles a little in response but does turn her head to look at her and nod. Making her way in front of the counter where the food is served, she finds an old man sitting behind it, wearing a white apron and chef's hat, currently reading a newspaper.

"Good morning, Mr. Nagumo," Miho greets the old man, who turns his head to look up at Miho, then closes his newspaper and puts it under the counter.

"Ah, good morning Miho," he says with a gentle smile as he stands up. "Here to eat breakfast?"

"Yes. Hana and Yukari have come as well."

"Ah, I see. I imagine Hana asked for extras?" he chuckles as he glances at the table where everyone has sat.

"Yes," Miho chuckles along. "Is that alright?"

"Of course, but I'm afraid I can only offer you rice," the man sighs, scratching his head a little. "Food shortages have been increasing as of lately, and I'm afraid water shortages might appear as well too…"

"Are things getting that bad?" Miho asks the old man, who has turned around and is going further inside the kitchen to retrieve a few bowls and fill them with rice.

"I'm afraid so. The other day I went in Matsumoto for some business I had and… things are really bad. People in the streets starving and fighting over a few scraps of food, the military issuing ration tickets… and the people just get more and more restless with each passing day." Grabbing five bowls, Nagumo takes them on one of the kitchen counters and sets them on it, next to the rice cooker. "Martial law doesn't help at all, and the posted patrols only worsen the situation. If the Chinese don't get us first, we'll eventually destroy ourselves from inside out…" Filling the first bowl, he sets it down and grabs another empty one.

"But don't let the words of an old man dampen your mood. A young woman like you should always have a bright smile on your face," he says after glancing at Miho and noticing a sad expression forming on her face. "And while things here are bad, the further North you go, the better they become. I went in Sendai a week ago and living conditions there are leagues better. Laughing people going around, plenty of food to go, and even the military's presence is minimal." Filling two more bowls with rice, he starts filling the last two, a gentle smile slowly forming on his face. "I'm sure that with patience and honest work, we'll be able to restore Japan to the country it once was. We simply need to bide our time and wait for the perfect time."

Having filled up all the bowls with rice, Nagumo retrieves a large tray from a nearby counter, then puts on it the bowls and move it back to the counter where Miho is waiting.

"Here you go, Miho. One for you, one for Yukari, and a little extra for Hana," he chuckles as he hands her the tray, then retrieves three pairs of disposable chopsticks from under the counter and puts them on the tray.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Nagumo," Miho bows her head slightly, then turns around and starts walking back to where the rest are sitting. Reaching the table, she sets the tray on it, then takes a seat next to Hana.

"What does the mission briefing say?" Miho asks Mako as she grabs one of the bowls and a pair of chopsticks, then breaks them seperate and starts eating some of the rice. In the meantime, Yukari grabs a bowl and a pair of chopsticks as well, while Hana drags the tray with the three remaining bowls in front of her.

"The mission seems simple enough. We need to find the crashed UAV, retrieve the black box, then destroy the drone and exfiltrate," Mako says as she sets down the folder and fully opens it, then turns it around so that Miho can see everything properly. "This is the map area. The drone has crashed right here." Mako taps at a picture that shows the map area of central Japan, a zone that extends from Kanazawa, Takayama, Iida and Shizuoka all the way to Tsuruga, Nagahama and Yokkaichi being colored purple, then at the picture next to it, which shows the local topography around the area where the drone crashed. "It's only a few kilometers from the northern borders of the zone, so we shouldn't encounter any trouble or Ether concentration over 2 Azarin."

"I see. Still, just to be safe, we'll take gas masks and a few extra filters. Also, it's better if we insert from here. It's a bit further from the original insertion point, but we can use the forest to reach the crash site pretty much undetected," Miho comments as she taps the picture with the local topology a few times, the rest of her team giving their utmost attention at what she's saying. "Also, we have this as well."

Miho taps at a sticky note that has been stuck at the bottom of the folder, the message "Copy everything from the back box, and you'll get a bonus. - Director" written with red ink, then looks at Mako. "You think you can do it?"

Mako nods. "Copying the data should be simple enough, but it'll most likely be encrypted," she says and slightly scratches her head. "I don't really know if I can crack the military's encryption…"

"It's alright, Mako. We only need to copy the data, not decrypt it as well," Miho says, then closes the file and goes back at eating her breakfast.

_beeep… beeep… _

Feeling her phone vibrating, Saori quickly retrieves it from one of her pants' pockets and unlocks it to see who is calling her.

"Oh shoot, it's Tyler! I had completely forgotten about it. Really sorry, but I told him I'd call when I'd wake up…" she says as she stands up from her chair.

"It's fine, Saori, just don't take too long. The JSDF helicopter will be here to get us in an hour and we need to prepare for the mission," Miho says to Saori, who in response nods, then answers the call.

"Yes, Tyler? Good morning! Sorry I didn't call, we got an urgent job and we were going over the mission briefing. Eh? No no, you don't need to hang up, we just finished with it. Anyway, how have you been? Ah, I see…"

As Saori exits the mess hall to talk on the phone, Miho finishes her bowl of rice, so she puts her chopsticks on it and stands up.

"We better start getting ready for the mission," Miho says as she grabs the folder. "I'll get the folder back to Miss Misako. Meet me at the armory in ten minutes."

"Yes, Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari salutes, then quickly finishes her breakfast.

"See you at the armory, Miho," Hana says, already having finished her third bowl of rice.

"Bye," Mako says sleepily, and so Miho turns around to exit the mess hall and go towards the Director's office to hand the folder back to Misako, then make her way to the armory to get ready for their mission.

* * *

**A/N: After almost a year of minimal activity I've finally written and released the first chapter of the Ether Conflict rewrite! I'll release a few more chapters and based on the people's reception I'll either continue with this alternate universe, or I'll continue the original one. Anyways, I hope you liked this first chapter/prologue. Follow and favorite if you are interested on how the story will progress, throw a review if you have any comments to make about it, and send a PM if you have any questions. English isn't my main language, so expect mistakes and awkward grammar here and there. Thank you very much for reading the chapter, have a good day/night and stay safe! **

**Also special thanks to people like SeekerMeeker, Mika68, and Bukkake (yes that's their username) for sticking around despite my lazy ass, as well everyone else that came here from the original story. I hope you'll like this story as much as the original.**


	2. Chapter 1: Drone Recovery

**The Ether Conflict Redux **

**Chapter 1: Drone Recovery**

* * *

**May 2nd, 203X**

**Outskirts of Matsumoto, Japan**

Checking her M4A1 assault rifle to make sure the safety is on, Miho slings it on her back next to her AR-57 personal defense weapon, then adjusts her combat vest a little to a more comfortable position.

_Helmet's on, I have five magazines for the M4A1, four for the the AR-57, three frag grenades, and two HEAT rounds for Yukari's recoilless rifle… this should be everything…_ Miho thinks as she looks around, currently she and the rest of her team waiting at the base's helipad for the JSDF helicopter to arrive.

"Everyone's checked their equipment?" she asks the rest, and the first one to respond is Saori, holding in her arms a SCAR-L STD assault rifle, while a stock Glock 34 is placed on a holster strapped on her right thigh.

"Everything's fine, here! Four stun grenades should be enough, right?" she asks Miho as she jumps a little to see if she can move like normal despite the extra weight of the radio equipment she has on her back. "It feels a bit heavier than usual…"

"It's because of the new encryption module we installed…" Mako says with a sleepy expression, on her back hanging a P90 IR, while on her right thigh a holster with a stock Glock 34 is strapped.

"Still, I don't remember it weighing that much when we installed it," Saori says at Mako, who in return simply shrugs her shoulders.

"At least we should be able to encrypt our transmissions adequately, now," Miho comments as Hana finishes checking her weapons and equipment as well.

"It'll only work when talking to HQ, though, since they are the only ones with the decryption key," Mako says as she pats a hacking terminal that hangs below her waist to make sure it's secured properly.

"Miho, everything's alright here as well," Hana says, carrying on her back a suppressed SVDM marksman rifle, while on her belt an MP7A2 hangs, along with two claymores.

"All done here too, Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari, who is carrying the heaviest load of them all, says as she lifts her M249 light machine-gun from the ground, in her back carrying a Howa 84mm recoilless rifle, and like Saori and Mako, a stock Glock 34 in a holster strapped on her right thigh.

"Ammunition count?" Miho asks as the faint sound of rotating blades fills the air.

"One box for the M249, two HE, one HEAT and one ADM for the recoilless rifle, and three magazines for the Glock," Yukari responds. "Oh, and two frag grenades."

"Good. Make sure your weapons are unloaded and with safeties on," Miho says to everyone as the JSDF helicopter, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk slowly reaches the base and starts descending towards the helipad. She then grabs a bag that's sitting next to her, containing their gas masks and filters for the mission, as well an Azarin counter to measure the Ether concentration in the air. As the helicopter touches down, Saori goes and slides open the side door, then climbs inside the Black Hawk's cabin and takes a seat at one of the seats, followed by Mako who sits next to her, Hana who sits opposite of Mako, and Yukari who sits next to Hana, then opens the M249's bipod and sets it on the cabin's floor. Miho is the last one to enter, closing the cabin's door and setting the bag with the masks and filters next to Yukari's weapon. Sitting next to Hana, Miho leans to her left and looks behind her seat towards the cockpit.

"We are good to go."

"Copy that. We'll arrive at the insertion point in around ten to fifteen minutes, so relax and enjoy the ride," the co-pilot says as he flips a few switches, then the helicopter starts slowly ascending from the ground.

"Copy that," Miho responds, then turns around and unslings her assault rifle so that she can sit a bit more comfortably, laying it on her hips for now.

"These backpacks make it really awkward to sit almost anywhere…" Mako says, trying to find something to keep her mind occupied from the idea they are currently flying since she's scared of heights.

"Then why don't you take it off?" Saori asks, having taken off her own along with her radio equipment and having placed it in front of her for now.

"It's too much effort…" Mako replies, sinking a little bit more in her seat.

"Hah… I swear. Ten years have passed and you are still like back then," Saori sighs and slightly shakes her head.

"It's already been ten years since the match with Selection University?" Hana says in mild surprise, her rifle currently resting on top of her lap. "Time sure flies as you grow older."

"Or when the whole world around you goes up in flames…" Mako adds.

"Hah… seriously, it was like those impossible scenarios in videogames," Saori sighs again, looking at her weapon as she does so. "Like, six huge spires made of purple crystal appear overnight all around the world, and a month after that any place remotely close to them starts having weird catastrophes!"

"Ether storms and spire crashes," Miho muses quietly.

"And then some of the places around Japan started changing…" Yukari says, remembering quite well the first reports on the news about these so-called "terraformed zones" despite all the time that has passed since then. "Which created chaos and panic…"

"Don't forget the JSDF taking control of the country and the Chinese invasion," Mako adds in a sleepy tone, debating whether to fall asleep or not till they reach the insertion point.

"Five minutes till we enter the zone, I suggest you girls suit up just in case," the co-pilot says as he straps a mask on the lower half of his face, then takes control of the helicopter so the pilot can do the same.

"Understood," Miho responds, then turns to look at Yukari. "Yukari, masks and filters."

Yukari nods, then takes the bag with the gas masks and filters and puts it on her lap. Opening it, she starts handing to the rest a mask and four filters, then retrieves her own and puts the bag back on the floor. Each girl removes her helmet and puts their gas mask on, then screws a filter on the port the mask has on its left side.

"Everyone's good?" Miho asks in a muffled voice after screwing a filter on her mask and putting her helmet back on, then looks at the others.

Hana, Yukari, and Saori nod, while Mako flashes a thumbs up. Miho then bends down a little and stretches towards Yukari's legs, grabbing the bag that had the masks and filters and dragging it in front of her. Retrieving from inside it the Azarin counter, which looks like a pistol grip with a boxy, digital screen on top of it, Miho flips a switch that settles under the grip. The screen flashes white for a second, before the logo of a company named Mannheim Co. appears on the top left, along with a digital counter in the middle. Miho looks at the counter for a few seconds, which changes between 0.01 Azarin and 0.05 Azarin.

_Seems to be working alright, _Miho thinks, then presses a button at the left side of the grip, causing the screen to pop slightly up. Opening it, Miho finds underneath it a mechanical counter, as well a small LED light that's off right now. _Same for the mechanical counter and the lethality detector. _

Closing the screen, Miho then turns off the counter and hangs it on her belt along with her spare filters.

_Maybe I overdid it with ammunition and equipment? It's a simple recovery mission after all…_ Miho wonders in her mind as she looks out from the sliding door's small windows, seeing the landscape under her, as well the sky itself slowly taking a purple hue in coloration, signaling they have entered the terraformed zone. Out of curiosity, Miho takes the Azarin counter from her belt and turns it on again, and after it initializes, she looks at the digital counter.

_0.5 to 1 Azarin, pretty normal for the outskirts of the zone, _she thinks as she keeps looking at the counter for any fluctuations, but the highest number it records is 1.4 Azarin.

"Everything alright, Miho?" Hana asks as she looks at the counter from her seat, with Miho turning it off, then looking at Hana.

"Yes, Hana. I was simply looking at the Ether concentration since we've entered the zone," Miho responds, then hangs the counter on her belt once again. "Like Mako said during the briefing, Ether concentration shouldn't go over 2 Azarin in our area of operations, unless an Ether storm forms all of a sudden."

"You think we might come across scavengers, Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks and Miho shakes her head.

"The drone most likely crashed only a few hours ago, so unless someone saw it going down, they won't be able to alert a scavenger team to go and salvage it."

"Five minutes till the drop point!" the co-pilot announces, then turns his head slightly to glance in the cabin. "You sure you don't want us to fly you all the way to the drone? It'll be an extra five minutes tops."

"No, the new insertion point will be fine," Miho says as she lifts her weapon, then grabs a magazine from one of her vest's pouches and inserts it in the M4A1, pulling the charging handle to load a bullet inside the chamber. "Everyone, load your weapons."

Doing as ordered, everyone loads their weapons, save for Yukari's recoilless rifle for safety reasons.

"Just as discussed, after we disembark, we'll make our way to the drone through the forest and retrieve the black box. After that, we destroy the drone and call for the helicopter to pick us up. No one engages unless ordered otherwise," Miho says as she loads her AR-57 and slings it on her back.

"Hai!" everyone responds, having loaded their weapons but keeping the safeties on.

The next few minutes roll by in relative silence, save for the buzzing of the helicopter's engines and the occasional turbulence that shakes slightly the cabin.

"One minute till touchdown!" the co-pilot says loudly and a series of clicking sounds fills the cabin as the weapons' safeties are turned off. The helicopter gradually starts losing speed as it approaches the insertion point, slowly descending towards the ground. Miho's body grows more and more tense with each passing second, her grip on her assault rifle growing tighter.

"Twenty seconds!"

Miho takes a few deep breaths through her nose to keep herself calm, her heart rapidly beating in anticipation. Suddenly the cabin shakes significantly, signing the helicopter has touched down, and Miho almost instinctively stands up and goes to slide the door open, then jumps down and kneels at the left side of the cabin's opening, raising her weapon and scanning her surroundings slowly. Next to jump down is Saori, who, like Miho, kneels at the right side and raises her own weapon to scan her surroundings. Next jump down Yukari and Hana, while the last one to disembark is Mako.

"When you finish with your mission, contact us through the radio, frequency 224.87 Hz, callsign Pegasus!" the co-pilot shouts at the girls, with Mako flashing him a thumbs up as she slides the cabin's door close. Banging on the door two times to signal the pilots they can take off, Mako unslings her weapon and goes to join the rest at scanning the surroundings, a rather flat terrain spanning in front of them, with a forest flanking their sides at a distance of around one hundred meters. After the helicopter takes off to go away, the girls break into a sprint towards the tree line, taking cover behind some of the trees and looking for any movement, hostile or otherwise.

"Clear," Miho calls after around thirty seconds of absolute silence, everyone relaxing a little at this but keeping their guard up. She then turns on the Azarin counter but keeps it hanging from her belt, as well retrieves a map from a pocket in her cargo pants and opens it.

_Alright, so we are here, in the forest's tree line. If we use the forest as cover and follow it towards the west, it shouldn't take us more than twenty minutes to arrive to the crash site, _she thinks as she looks at the route she has marked on the map, then folds it to put it back inside her pants' pocket, then looks at the Azarin counter. _The concentration isn't getting over 1.2 here. Still, it might be better to keep the masks on in case it suddenly spikes up._

"Alright everyone, gather up," Miho says and the rest gather around her. "I'll take point, Yukari, you bring the rear. It should take around 20 minutes to reach the crash site, but don't let your guard down. If you see or hear anything suspicious, report it immediately."

Everyone nods, then set off further inside the forest in a line, with Miho in the front leading everyone towards the crashed drone, followed by Saori, Mako, Hana, and Yukari. Their trek for the most part is in silence, the only sound heard being the leaves and twigs that get crushed under their boots or the occasional shifting of their equipment. Though as they get closer to the crashed drone, a few, tiny purple crystals appear jutting out from the ground and the tree trunks, slightly glimmering under the few light rays that pass through the thick foliage of the trees over their heads.

"Haah… however many times we get deployed in the zone, it still feels so alien and nauseating…" Saori mumbles to herself as she looks around, everything having a purple hue on them; even the air itself seems to be purple in some degree.

"Seems we've entered a pocket…" Miho muses as she looks around, then checks the counter to see how high the Ether concentration is. "Hmm… it seems to be averaging at around 1.8 Azarin. Still safe, but barely…"

"If the crystals were bigger, maybe we could collect them and then sell them. And with the money buy ingredients to make a cake… a chocolate cake…" Mako says, spacing out for a moment and licking her lips in anticipation.

"But Mako, we have enough money to buy a hundred cakes, even with how ridiculously expensive they are nowadays," Saori says and Mako snaps back into reality.

"Oh, right. We should buy a few when return back in base."

"I don't think Matsumoto has any working confectionery shops. We might need to go further north to buy a cake," Hana says and Mako seems to deflate a little.

"Ugh… so tiresome…" she whines a little, not wanting to spend a day off just traveling to go and get a sweet and delicious cake. "Don't they have delivery services?"

"I don't think they can be done between different cities."

"Great… Ah, how about buying an ice cream machine?" Mako suggests. "We could probably have Blackout order it, so they'll definitely bring it to us, and maybe even give us a small discount. Mmm~, chocolate and vanilla ice cream~"

"Wouldn't it be more cost-effective to make our own ice cream? I think they use specialized mixtures for the ice cream machines, and they probably won't be cheap," Yukari says from the back of the line and Mako deflates slightly once again.

"Right…"

"Well, we could try and make our own mixtures. It shouldn't be that hard," Hana adds to lift Mako's spirit a little.

"We can decide what we'll do after we return to the base," Miho says as the tiny crystals all around them start disappearing, the girls slowly exiting the pocket of Ether. "For now, we focus on the mission."

The girls spend the next ten minutes walking in silence, nothing eventful happening whatsoever. Though, as they approach their destination, the silence of the woods is abruptly cut off by voices.

_thump_

"Hey, watch it! You almost crashed my feet!"

"Crap, sorry! The wing was just a bit heavy."

"You two stop wasting time and bring it here right now!"

The girls immediately rush towards the tree line and take cover behind some of the trees, peeking around them and towards the direction of the voices. Around fifty meters away from them a crashed and battered drone settles upside down, currently surrounded by a group of six people that are in the process of dismantling it.

"Scavengers…" Miho says quietly, counting how many there are. "Six in total around the drone and one more standing at the cargo bed of that white pickup truck… Hana, can you make out what weapons they are carrying with them?"

Hana lifts her rifle and peers through its scope, slowly scanning each and every guy, before putting it down and turning to face Miho.

"They are armed with old hunting rifles, but most have left them on the ground next to them."

Miho stays silent for a moment as she tries to think what to do, then turns to look at Saori.

"Saori, you are with me. We'll try and see if we can make them go away without shooting them. Hana, Yukari, and Mako, you provide cover in case things go south," Miho orders and everyone nods, so she and Saori exit the tree line and slowly make their way towards the men, their weapons pointed to the ground but ready to be raised and fired in case the scavengers prove to be hostile.

"Miho, are you sure about it?" Saori asks quietly as the sentry immediately spots them and alerts the rest of the group, who quickly scamper on their feet and grab their own hunting rifles.

Miho glances at Saori and nods, then turns to look at the men. "Please don't shoot! We are not here with hostile intent!"

"Who the hell are you and what do you want?" one of the men says loudly, his voice sounding muffled thanks to the gas mask he's wearing.

"We are here on official JSDF business. We've been tasked with destroying the drone you are trying to salvage. We'd like to ask you to go away. We do not seek to cause any unnecessary deaths," Miho responds, and an uneasy silence falls between the two parties, only to be broken by the laughter of the man standing on the back of the pickup truck.

"Pfffft-ahahaha! You can't be serious! Why the hell would the JSDF send only two soldiers to destroy one of their drones? Especially since it crashed inside the terraformed zone! They usually take at least a day before they send troops inside!" he says incredulously and readies his hunting rifle to fire.

_crack! _

A shot strikes his left upper arm out of nowhere, forcing him to let go of his weapon and fall back on the truck.

"Aaaargh!" he screams in pain, clasping his right hand over the bullet wound that's heavily bleeding. Miho and Saori immediately raise their weapons and aim them at the rest of the men before they can aim their rifles at them.

"Look, we don't want any unnecessary bloodshed. Please, just leave the drone and go away…" Miho says in a calm but steady voice, her index finger placed on the trigger and ready to shoot if the men try anything funny. Silence descends between everyone yet again, only the pained groaning of the shot man being heard." Please… if your friend doesn't receive first aid, he'll die from bleeding out."

The man that had spoken first to the girls stares at them for a few long moments, before relaxing his body a little and slinging his hunting rifle on his back.

"Everyone, back on the truck, we are leaving. Takeo, go and check Itami's wound, use some of the spare bandages to stop the bleeding for now," he instructs, then turns around and walks towards the truck.

"Are you sure about this, boss?" one of the men asks, glancing at the girls for a moment, then back at the man.

"If you want to fight people with military gear, then be my guest. I'm not throwing my life away for a piece of junk," he responds and the man nods, quickly going to the pickup truck. After everyone embarks it, the white pickup truck hastily speeds off, with Miho and Saori lowering their weapons only after it disappears from view behind a small hill.

"God, this was so stressful…" Saori sighs in relief as the sudden adrenaline rush of the sudden shot goes away, then looks at the battered and lightly smocking fuselage of the drone. "Did the black box even survive the crash?"

"We'll know soon enough," Miho responds as she motions to Yukari, Hana and Mako to come to them, the three girls exiting the tree line and jogging towards them. She then turns around and looks at the fuselage, finding a loosened metal plate at the front of its side. Walking towards it and slinging her weapon, Miho grabs the plate and starts pulling it in an attempt to pry it off. "Gghhhk! Hah… hah… Saori, come help me with it."

Saori complies and slings her weapon, then goes to help Miho with the plate. Reaching the drone, Yukari goes to help with the plate as well, while Hana and Mako check their surroundings for any hostiles that might be hiding around. With the help of Yukari and Saori, Miho manages to pry the plate back enough so that they can easily see what's inside. Along with the drone's onboard computer and other necessary machinery to function, Miho sees a medium-sized orange box, pretty banged up in most sides but still in one piece. Grabbing it and pulling it out with a bit effort, Miho sets it down on the ground, then turns to look at Mako.

"Mako, you are up."

Mako nods and moves towards the orange box, kneeling in front of it and putting her weapon next to her on the ground.

"So that's the black box… why are they even calling it a black box if it's painted orange?" Saori asks as Mako retrieves her hacking terminal from her back, then pulls an integrated USB adapter from it and connects it with a USB port on top of the black box. Opening the terminal's screen, she taps a few commands and begins copying everything from it.

"I've started copying everything, but it might take some time before the process is completed," Mako says to Miho, looking at a few lines that have scrolled up from the bottom of the screen, indicating that it will take around 15 minutes to completely copy everything from the drone's black box.

"Good. We'll contact the JSDF helicopter at around the 5-minute mark. Yukari, you and me will place the explosives inside the drone and arm them. Saori, you help Mako move the black box along with her terminal back in the forest, we'll take cover in it until the helicopter arrives. Hana, keep looking around for any enemies while we set the explosives."

Mako and Saori grab the black box and quickly move back in the tree line, while Yukari sets down her weapon and goes to take the explosives from Miho's backpack, opening it and retrieving a few bricks of C4 and a small bag of remote detonators, as well a remote to detonate them from a safe distance. Hana on the other hand keeps scanning the surrounding area with her rifle's scope, though the only things she sees is trees and slightly purple grass.

Closing Miho's backpack, Yukari hands her half of the C4 bricks, then starts placing hers on the outside of the fuselage, while Miho places her own share of explosives inside it, over anything remotely electronic that the enemy could extract information out of. After placing them, Miho retrieves a few remote detonators from the small bag Yukari is holding, stabbing them inside the C4 bricks and turning them on, a small red light flashing dimly on top of them to show they are working.

"Explosives armed," Miho calls out as she pulls herself out of the drone and looks at Yukari, who is just about to finish arming the last of her own explosives as well.

"All done here too," she calls out, then goes and grabs her weapon. "This should be enough to completely destroy the drone, Miss Nishizumi!"

"I think we might have overdone it, if I'm honest…" Miho comments as she looks at the drone for a moment, then turns around and gets the remote to detonate the explosives from Yukari. "At any rate, lets get back to Saori and Mako, detonate the explosives and get-"

_Vrrrrrrrr!_

"Miho, enemies on the horizon!" Hana says in alarm as she spots a vehicle in the distance, quickly making its way towards them. "It's a ZBD!"

"The Chinese are here!?" Yukari asks in shock, finding it quite unbelievable Chinese forces would come all the way from the other side of the zone, especially considering how treacherous the center of it is. "How did they even make it all the way to our side!?"

"Tch, no time for questions! Everyone, back at the tree line, now!" Miho orders and the girls break into a sprint, making their way back into the forest before they can be detected by the enemy.

"Miho, what's going on?" Saori asks as she sees Miho, Yukari and Hana come back in a hurry and take cover behind some of the trees, before she herself hears the roaring of the IFV's engine and takes cover behind a tree along with Mako as well. "I-Isn't that the engine of a ZBD!? What are the Chinese doing on our side of the zone?" she asks in a hushed voice as the vehicle comes closer and closer, until it stops a few dozen meters away from the drone and unloads five people dressed in military gear.

"It's a ZBD-04A, armed with a 30mm autocannon…" Yukari says quietly as she looks at its turret, which is currently looking around, most likely trying to see if there are any enemies nearby. "If it spots us, we are done for."

"Miho, some of the soldiers are moving towards the drone," Hana reports as she tracks three of the men that make their way towards the drone, while two remain next to the ZBD and look around.

"They probably came for the drone, but from where…" Miho muses quietly to herself, and after a bit of thought, retrieves one of the 84mm HEAT rounds from her belt and hands it to Yukari. "Load your recoilless rifle and target the ZBD." Yukari nods and puts down her M249, then unslings her Howa 84mm recoilless rifle and opens the back of the tube, loading inside the HEAT round and closing it.

"Hana, target one of the three men that are close to the drone."

"Tracking the one on the far right," Hana says as she adjusts her scope's crosshairs over the head of the far right soldier. Miho slings her weapon and takes the detonator, waiting for the three enemy soldiers to get closer to the drone.

"On my mark…"

Fanning out a little, two of the three Chinese soldiers stop in front of the drone, while the one Hana is tracking veers of to the left.

"Now."

_click_

_BOOM! _

Pressing the trigger of the remote, the explosives detonate and blow up the drone along with the two soldiers standing in front of it, their mutilated remains getting flung all around the grassy field. Before any of the enemies can react, a bullet strikes the third soldier in his right eye, his body jerking backwards and limply falling down on the ground, while a rocket assisted, 84mm round flies out of the forest and streaks through the air screaming death, hitting the ZBD in the front and penetrating the armor, completely destroying the engine and setting the fuel in it on fire.

"Saori, with me!" Miho says loudly and rushes out of the forest towards the knocked out and heavily smoking ZBD, Hana hitting one of the remaining soldiers in his knee as he tries to take cover behind the vehicle. Saori quickly follows after Miho, while Yukari changes to her primary weapon and remains with Hana to provide support from afar.

Getting close to the ZBD, Miho signals Saori to flank from the left side, then slows down and raises her weapon and very slowly makes her way towards the back of the IFV, ready to shoot anything that might appear from behind it. Reaching the end of the ZBD's side, Miho takes a few deep breaths, before she turns around the corner, weapon raised and ready to shoot.

"Hands in the air!" she shouts in Chinese, finding two soldiers and two crew members at the back. One of the crew members is doing his best to provide first aid to the other crew member who has lost part of his left leg, while one of the soldiers is bandaging the other soldier's shot knee from Hana's previous shot. The soldier that's bandaging the shot knee tries to grab his rifle and shoot at Miho, but at that moment Saori comes around the other corner and shoots him in the back, the man releasing a short cry of pain before he falls down on the ground dead and bleeding from several bullet wounds.

"Nobody move!" Saori shouts in Chinese as well while Miho shouts again for them to raise their hands, even shaking her M4A1 slightly to emphasize the point that they will shoot them unless they comply. The remaining soldier and the crew member that is fine slowly raise their hands, while the man with the cut leg keeps groaning in pain while he lies down on the ground.

"Saori, take their weapons," Miho says and Saori complies, slowly walking towards the three men and kicking their weapons away, still aiming her weapon at them in case they try anything funny. Miho steps a bit backwards so the the rest of the girls in the forest can see her, then signals them to come to her position. Thirty seconds later, Hana, Yukari and Mako arrive, with Mako setting down the black box a bit away from the three captured men.

"Yukari, Hana, make sure they don't try anything funny," Miho orders them and both of the girls raise their weapons at the men, then motions to Saori to follow her to where Mako is. "Did you copy everything?" she asks Mako.

"Yes. Everything has been copied on the terminal's disk," Mako nods, so Miho turns to look at Saori.

"Contact the helicopter and tell them we have completed the mission, as well we fought a Chinese team sent to recover the drone most likely and captured three soldiers."

"Callsign is Pegasus, frequency is 224.87," Mako says to Saori, who takes off her radio equipment and starts turning a few dials it has on top, then grabs its microphone and pushes a button at its side to talk.

"Pegasus, this is Black Wolves, do you copy? Over," Saori says, then releases the button and waits for a response.

_"Black Wolves, this is Pegasus, we copy you loud and clear," _comes the response, so Saori pushes the button to talk again.

"Mission has been accomplished, I repeat, mission has been accomplished, the black box has been retrieved and the drone has been destroyed. But we encountered a Chinese ZBD-04A transporting a squad of five soldiers, most likely to…"

As Saori reports the appearance of the Chinese units, as well the capture of three of the soldiers, Miho takes a few deep breaths to relax, then takes off her backpack to retrieve a bandage from it. She then puts it back on and walks towards the three captured men, presenting at the crewmember that is fine the bandage.

"It's not much, but it should stop your friend's bleeding for now," she says to him in Chinese, and the man just looks at her dumbfounded, before silently taking the bandage and using it to temporarily treat the other man's cut leg.

"Miho, they said they'll be here in around half an hour," Saori says after terminating the radio transmission, putting the radio equipment on her back and walking towards Miho.

"What did they say about them?" Miho asks and motions two the three Chinese with her head.

"They'll send a second helicopter to take them at a JSDF base, it will arrive along with our ride."

"Alright," Miho nods, then looks to Hana. "Hana, you and Saori keep watch in case more enemies appear, me and Yukari will keep an eye over them. Mako, you are responsible for the box. If enemies appear, you grab it and run towards the forest."

As Hana and Saori go away, Miho sighs a little through her nose, a bad feeling welling up in her stomach.

_Haah… I'm sure it's nothing but… why do I feel as if we just opened the Pandora's box…?_

* * *

**A/N: Another chapter done, and in only a couple of days as well! This one came a bit bigger, around 5.5k words, though expect the chapters to fluctuate from 3-6k (don't know if I'll be writing any 10k words chapters, at least for now). Anyways, I hope you liked this first chapter/prologue. Follow and favorite if you are interested on how the story will progress, throw a review if you have any comments to make about it, and send a PM if you have any questions. English isn't my main language, so expect mistakes and awkward grammar here and there. Thank you very much for reading the chapter, have a good day/night and stay safe! **


	3. Chapter 2: Priority Mission

**The Ether Conflict Redux **

**Chapter 2: Priority Mission**

* * *

**May 3rd, 203X**

**Miho's Room, 7:00 AM**

_beep beep beep beep_

"Mmm…"

Shifting a little bit under the sheets of her bed, Miho slowly opens her eyes and sits up, looking at her alarm clock and tapping its top to stop it from beeping anymore.

_click_

"_Yawn… _Oh wow, I slept almost 12 hours…" Miho says in a groggy voice as she looks at her alarm clock, then stretches her arms up in the air.

"Mmmn~…! Haah… much better," she hums to herself, then gets out of bed to go and splash some water on her face, but not before she turns on the TV to hear the morning news.

_click_

_"...-rst case of actual terraform reversal in a small terraformed zone in central Siberia, with the Russian government stating that while it's still too early to make any definite conclusions, this new technology that was developed between the National Technological Institute of Russia and the MIT has already shown potential in actively combating the spread of such zones, and maybe in the future, even reclaiming them back."_

_That sounds nice. Perhaps Japan will become one country again in the future,_ Miho thinks as she turns on the bathroom sink and starts splashing some cold water on her face.

_"In other news, the JGSDF presented yesterday in the Tokyo Exhibition Hall the new Type 30 main battle tank as part of the National Defense Arms Exhibition that has been held for the past few days now."_

Drying her face with a towel, Miho then exits the bathroom and goes towards her wardrobe to grab a pair of clothes and get dressed.

_"According to military officials, the new MBT will be using Electro-Thermal Chemical technology, or ETC, to enhance the firepower of the tank by significantly improving the speed of the projectiles up to 2.5 to 4 kilometers per second, therefore increasing the penetration of the so-called kinetic energy rounds. It has also stated that the tank will be boasting greater mobility due to the use of a bigger engine, as well a new type of metal alloy for armor, leading to increased protection and reduced weight."_

Miho turns to look at the small TV for a moment as she retrieves her clothes from the wardrobe, currently a picture of a tank she has never seen being shown.

_Hmm… I wonder if our Panzer IV is still battle worthy. I don't want to admit it, but as many times as we might upgrade it, it'll never be able to fight toe to toe with a modern MBT, _Miho thinks as she makes her way towards her bed, then lays her clothes on it and starts changing. _Maybe it's time we thought about a complete overhaul for it. _

_"This concludes the morning news. Next up is the documentary "Project Starfall: A myth, or Japan's most controversial experiment to date" and after that the documentary "Serum: The world's lost wonder weapon"."_

_This channel really likes showing documentaries, _Miho muses in her mind as she finishes tying her boots' laces, then turns off the TV and grabs her room's key from the nearby bedstand. Standing up from her bed, she then walks out of her room and locks the door, then starts heading towards the mess hall to get breakfast.

_The others aren't here. Did they go straight to the mess hall or did they decide to sleep a bit more?_ Miho wonders as she looks behind her in case any of her friends appear, but she sees no one. _Well, it is a day-off, since it's the day after a mission, so they probably decided to catch more sleep._

Miho then starts descending the staircase, and after stepping on the ground floor, takes a right turn and finds herself on a hallway.

_Such a beautiful day, _she thinks as she looks out of one of the hallway's large windows, getting a view of the base's main courtyard, as well the garage depot, the main gate, and the helipad it has. Though as she reaches the mess hall's entrance, she finds Saori in front of it talking to her phone.

"No, thankfully they were compliant. Yeah, the JSDF took them, probably to interrogate them. Anyway, how have your mission been-oh, give me a second."

Saori lowers her phone slightly and covers the bottom portion of it with her hand, then looks at Miho.

"Good morning, Miporin," Saori greets her friend with a smile, with Miho waving slightly back and stopping in front of her.

"Good morning, Saori. Did you wake up earlier?" she asks, and Saori nods.

"Yes. Everyone except Mako woke up earlier, actually."

"Oh," Miho says a bit surprised, then motions with her head at the mess hall's doors. "Are they inside?"

"Hana is, but Yukari took her breakfast and went in the garage to check on the tank. Mako is still sleeping, I'll go wake her up around eight or nine. Ah! Before I forget, Mr. Nagumo went to shop for a few ingredients at Nagano, so Mrs. Nagumo is serving breakfast."

"Alright. Say to Tyler I said hi," Miho says, then enters inside the mess hall.

"I will. Hey, Tyler, you're still there? Mmm, Miporin is saying hi. Yeah, I'll tell her. Anyway, as I was saying…"

Entering inside the mess hall, just like Saori said, Miho finds Hana sitting at one of the tables, a small tower made of five stacked bowls settling next to her while she's eating rice from a currently half-empty, sixth bowl.

"Good morning, Hana," Miho says as she walks towards the table her friend is sitting, with Hana turning slightly her head to look who called her name.

"Mmh? Ah, Miho. Good morning," Hana says after swallowing the food she had in her mouth, a gentle smile forming on her face.

"How did you sleep?" Miho asks as Hana finishes her sixth bowl of rice and places it on the stacked bowls.

"I slept fine. You?"

"I feel like I slept a bit too much," Miho chuckles. Hana chuckles a little bit as well as she places the stack of bowls on her tray, then stands up to take them back to the kitchen.

"You did sleep very early," Hana comments as she and Miho make their way towards the counter where breakfast is served. "Were you feeling that tired from the mission?"

"Probably. It's been a while since we had to engage someone in a firefight. Most times things are quite, especially inside the zone."

Reaching the counter, Miho sees a short woman around Mr. Nagumo's age, and just like him, sitting in a chair but knitting a scarf instead of reading a newspaper.

"Good morning, Mrs. Nagumo," Miho greets the old woman as Hana places her tray on the counter, with the woman looking up to her and forming a gentle smile.

"Ah, Miho, good morning," Mrs. Nagumo says as she stops knitting and puts the incomplete scarf along with the knitting needles under the counter, then stands up. "Here for breakfast?"

"Yes," Miho responds.

"Great! Just give me a few minutes and I'll bring you some," she says back as she takes Hana's tray to go and put the stacked bowls on the sink to wash them later. "If you want more, Hana, just come and ask! We have plenty rice to go by."

"I will, Mrs. Nagumo," Hana says as the old woman goes further inside the kitchen, then turns to look at Miho. "If you'll excuse me, I need to talk to the director about this month's money transfer. Have a good day, Miho."

"Mmm. Talk to you later, Hana."

As Hana goes away, Miho turns her attention back to Mrs. Nagumo, who has already put two bowls full of rice on a tray and is bringing them back to the counter.

"Here you go!" Mrs. Nagumo says as she puts the tray in front of Miho.

"Two bowls?" Miho asks confused as she looks at the bowls, then back at Mrs. Nagumo.

"Saori came to get breakfast but then went out to talk to her phone, so I put one for her as well," she answers as she grabs two pairs of disposable chopsticks and puts them on the tray. "And if she doesn't want to eat, you could always use the extra food to last a bit longer until lunch."

"Mmm. Thank you very much, Mrs. Nagumo," Miho says and bows her head slightly, then takes the tray to go and sit at one of the tables. Taking a seat, Miho grabs one of the bowls and places it at the side of the table opposite to her along with a pair of chopsticks, then starts eating from the bowl in front of her.

_I should probably call back home one of these days to see how mother and sister are doing, _Miho thinks absent-mindedly as she slowly eats her food, lazily looking down on the table. _I hope this time mother won't refuse to talk to me… Sister says she's been doing a lot better thanks to the treatments, but still… It'd be nice if I could hear it from her…_

Hearing the doors to the mess hall open, Miho looks up to find Saori entering inside, so she waves slightly at her to come to the table.

"Is this for me?" Saori asks and Miho nods, then gulps down the food in her mouth.

"Mrs. Nagumo put it for you."

"Ah, I see. Thank you very much, Mrs. Nagumo!" Saori says at the old woman and bows slightly towards her, then takes a seat opposite from Miho and grabs the bowl and disposable chopsticks in front of her to start eating breakfast.

"How are Tyler and the others doing?" Miho asks after Saori takes a seat, before she grabs some more rice with her chopsticks to eat.

"He said everyone's doing fine, though Odysseus has been grumpy since yesterday because their mission got extended till today afternoon," Saori answers, then grabs a bit of rice with her chopsticks.

"Their mission was to provide bodyguard services for someone, right?" Miho asks and Saori nods. "Did something happen that caused the VIP to extend the contract?"

Saori shakes her head, then swallows the food in her mouth.

"It seems the VIP had an extra appointment, according to Tyler, so he extended the contract to cover that as well. But at least they will be back tonight, if their contract doesn't get extended again," Saori says cheerfully and Miho giggles a little. "Ah, speaking of which, the annual PMC meeting is in a week or two, if I'm not wrong. Do you think the Director will attend this time?"

"No, I don't think so. Blackout isn't part of Japan's MSS or under the PMC Supervision Association, so there's really no incentive to go," Miho says, then grabs the last of her rice to eat.

"It's really unbelievable how Blackout is still not registered inside the Mercenary Supervision System. Then again, maybe the Director made a deal with the government or the JSDF."

"It's most likely thanks to Mr. Shimanuki and his contacts in the JGSDF," Miho says after eating the last of her food. "Probably how the Director will get the data recovered from the drone's black box decrypted as well."

"I don't think even with close friends inside the JGSDF he'll be able to get the decryption key. It'd be really bad if something like that was to fall in the wrong hands…"

"But it is a possibility. And I don't think Blackout has the resources to crack military grade encryption or hire someone to do so."

"I suppose. If the Director asked for the data in the box, he probably has already thought of something," Saori hums. "And the bonus pay was rather high this time around. Not that I mind, it means I can send more money to my parents."

"Mhmm. Speaking of them, how are they doing?" Miho asks Saori as she grabs some rice with her chopsticks.

"They are fine, though they complain it's too cold in the north, as well my mother is constantly asking me when I'll retire and settle down to make a family. Which I can't really do because of the contract I signed."

"You know, you could have declined his offer all those years ago," Miho says as Saori eats the last rice in her bowl, then takes it and puts it on the tray along with her chopsticks.

"Perhaps, but with how things were back then, I don't think we'd have survived. The JSDF's pay was not all that much, and it certainly wasn't enough for three people; the Director really made us an offer we couldn't afford to decline," Saori responds as she gazes down on the table, then looks back up at Miho. "But well, I got to meet Tyler, so I think everything worked out in the end," she chuckles a little. "And there's no way we'd leave you alone, Miporin! You are our friend, we wouldn't let you shoulder such a heavy weight alone."

Miho gently smiles at this.

"Thank you, Saori!" she says cheerfully, then takes the tray with the bowls and stands up, with Saori standing up as well.

"No need to mention it," Saori says. "I'll go wake up Mako. Talk to you later!"

"Talk to you later!" Miho responds as Saori goes away, then turns around to go and leave the tray with the bowls to Mrs. Nagumo, then go see how Yukari is doing in the garage depot.

Leaving the tray on the counter, Miho exits the mess hall and turns right on the hallway, walking for a few dozen meters until see finds a set of doors on her left side, which she opens to exit out on the main courtyard.

_The base hasn't changed all that much since we first came here, _Miho muses to herself as she takes a moment to look around, not seeing all that much of the outside since the perimeter of the base is walled off with tall concrete walls. _Well, except for the walls. They were simple chain link fences back then._

Miho then makes her way towards the left side of the base where the garage depot settles, a rather small, concrete building with a few ventilation units on its rooftop and two sets of large doors from where potential vehicles can enter or exit.

_Ah, one of the doors is open, so Yukari must be still inside, _Miho thinks as she gets closer to the garage, noticing that one of the doors is wide open, allowing for some much needed sunlight to pour inside since the fluorescent light bulbs hanging from the ceiling barely provide enough lighting for the interior.

"Yukari, are you here?" Miho asks loudly as she enters inside, the smell of oil, grease and diesel immediately hitting her nose.

"I'm over here, Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari is heard saying from somewhere in the garage, so Miho looks around, but only spots her team's Panzer IV and Blackout's Humvee with a M134 Minigun mounted on its roof.

"Uhh… where exactly?" Miho asks just as Yukari appears from behind the Panzer IV, wearing the same clothes as Miho, along with a pair of gloves. "Ah, there you are! Good morning, Yukari."

"Good morning, Miss Nishizumi," Yukari greets back, dusting off her hands a little as Miho walks towards her.

"Saori told me you came to check on the tank. Any problems with it?" Miho asks, then turns to look at the Panzer IV, still the same as back when they were practicing Senshadou, save for a few changes to better their odds of survival against enemies, such as welding an extra steel plate on the front of the hull's upper part, covering parts of the armor in explosive reactive armor (ERA), a better engine and suspension, and a laser rangefinder that they had installed on top of the cannon, at the part in front of the gun mantlet.

"No, Miss Nishizumi. Everything's in working order!" Yukari responds and looks at the tank as well, which is painted in a pattern similar to the U.S. military's woodland pattern, though the one in the Panzer IV also has a slight tinge of purple to camouflage it better when operating inside the terraformed zone.

"Mmm…" Miho hums quietly, then walks closer to the tank and brushes her fingers against one of the hull's Schürzen plates, feeling a chilling sensation on her fingertips.

"Yukari… do you think our tank is still battleworthy?" Miho asks slowly, looking a bit up to gaze at the turret's Schürzen plates, the Anglerfish Team's cartoony symbol still painted on them. "Despite all the upgrades we have given it… despite how good we may be as a crew… I feel like its time is long gone. The enemies we face on the field, even the infantry, are able to take us out in a single shot nowadays…"

Miho unconsciously grabs her right forearm and rubs it a little, while Yukari silently walks next to her, looking up at the cartoony anglerfish as well.

"Objectively speaking, the Panzer IV is a second generation tank, developed and used during the second World War as a medium tank, with the H variant we are using being outfitted with Schürzen plates for added protection against anti-tank rifles. For its time, it was quite a good vehicle. Not so much now. Fighting fourth and fifth generation tanks with it is simply suicidal. Even an IFV with an autocannon can knock us out from the front, assuming it's using APFSDS rounds. And we can't really modernize it like the JSDF did with most of the Senshadou tanks, because we have neither the resources, nor the infrastructure to do so." Yukari stares at the cartoony anglerfish for a few more seconds, before she turns to look at Miho. "For all intents and purposes, the Panzer IV Ausf. H has no place in a modern battlefield, even with the few upgrades we've managed to somehow put on it. It's simply too underpowered against even the IFVs or light recon vehicles, simply because of the generation gap. Having said that, though, it did carry us through the Chinese invasion and even made it out unscathed!"

Yukari curls her left hand's fingers into a ball and hits the side of her fist lightly on one of the hull's Schürzen plates, producing a thumping sound that echoes a bit through the garage.

"It might be old and outdated, but it's still as reliable as ever!"

"Ehehe, I suppose," Miho giggles and looks back at the tank, a soft smile forming on her face.

As she and Yukari gaze at the Panzer IV, Misako enters the garage, knocking slightly at one of the doors to get their attention.

"Good morning, girls," she greets the two as she approaches them, with Miho and Yukari greeting her back.

"Miss Misako, good morning!"

"Good morning, Miss Misako!"

"I hope you slept well, yesterday," Misako says as she stops a few steps away from them, with both girls nodding in response.

"Yes, Miss Misako. We slept fine."

"Good to hear," Misako nods, then readjusts her glasses a little. "Miho, the Director asked for you in his office. It's about your next mission."

"Eh? Did something serious happen?" Miho says in surprise, since most of the times when they get a mission, Misako brings a folder with the mission briefing for them to study before they get deployed.

"No, nothing like that," Misako shakes her head. "It's just that this mission is… a delicate matter, to say the least."

"...I understand," Miho responds, then turns to look at Yukari. "Tell everyone to gather at the mess hall in an hour to go over the mission briefing."

"Will do, Miss Nishizumi," Yukari says back and half-salutes Miho, then takes off her gloves to leave them on a nearby table and go find the rest of the girls.

"Is it another mission from the JSDF?" Miho asks as she and Misako exit the garage and start walking back to the main building, where the Director's office is.

"Yes, and it is a high priority as well. The Director is thinking of assigning Reaper squad as well," Misako sighs slightly, a serious expression on her face.

"So both us and Odysseus' squad? Is the mission that dangerous?" Miho asks surprised, since the Director almost never accepts requests that need more than a single squad to be completed.

"It's not that it's dangerous, but rather… it must not fail. The military essentially demanded the mission is completed whatever the cost."

"W-Why would the Director even accept something like that? And if that's the case, why didn't the JSDF hire more PMCs for it or turn it into an open contract?" Miho asks baffled, at which Misako shrugs.

"Sadly I can't answer your questions, Miho. You'll have to ask the Director directly for that."

Entering the main building, Misako and Miho go towards the nearest staircase and up the second floor, where the Director's office is located. Stepping on the second floor and taking a left turn in a hallway, they both walk until they reach a wooden double door, with Misako stopping in front of it and knocking a few times with her hand.

_"Come in."_

Misako opens one side of the door and enters inside with Miho in tow, who looks around a little, noticing that a few things have changed since the last time she was here.

_The carpeted floor is the same, but… when did he install a chandelier in here? And the walls are now painted instead of the usual white. Even his desk seems new. At least the file cabinets are the same, _Miho thinks as she stops in the middle of the room, while Misako makes her way to the desk, towards the man that is currently sitting behind it on a leather chair and is reading a document.

"Director, I brought Miho," Misako says and the man looks up from what he's reading, his brown eyes gazing at Miho's for a moment before putting the document he's holding to the side.

"Miss Nishizumi, good morning," he greets and Miho bows her head for a moment.

"Good morning, Director."

"Please, take a seat."

Motioning towards one of the chairs in front of his desk, Miho obliges and takes a seat, while the Director leans slightly back on his chair and retrieves a Manila folder from a drawer.

"Regarding your new mission, you'll be working along with Odysseus and her squad on this one."

The Director hands the folder to Miho, and upon opening it, Miho widens her eyes.

"I-Isn't that…"

"Imada Yukio, a high ranking official within the JSDF and a veteran of the Chinese Invasion," the Director says, using a finger to straighten his thick mustache a bit. "The man who managed to stop the red horde dead on its tracks in Nagoya with a force outnumbered five to one. A prominent figure that is endorsed by the public and is considered a national hero, with a service record to back that up."

"But here… it says we need to eliminate him…" Miho says slowly, then looks up at the Director.

"According to the intel the JSDF provided us with, Imada is trying to defect to the Chinese for some unknown reason, and so the military leadership approved his assassination."

"Then… couldn't the military just do it on their own? Why hire a PMC for something like this?" Miho asks a bit confused, and the Director chuckles in response.

"Imagine the backlash when the public would learn of this. Sure they could try to cover it up, but with how popular he is, that'd be extremely difficult. On the other hand, by hiring a PMC, especially one that isn't inside their supervision system or their little association, they can simply blame the Chinese for his death. You know what that means, don't you?"

Miho silently looks at the Director for a few moments, then back at the documents inside the folder.

"So… we are preparing for another war…"

"Unfortunately yes, Miss Nishizumi. The ceasefire won't hold more than a month tops, and the JSDF is getting ready for it. They have already started mobilizing the troops and most likely will be moving towards the edge of the zone by mid May."

Miho keeps reading what the file contains, before closing it and placing it on top of her thighs.

"This tangent aside, Imada will be meeting a Chinese handler two days from now in the abandoned city of Kanazawa. Make sure everyone in the meeting doesn't get out alive, especially the target."

"Understood, Director," Miho nods, then grabs the file and stands up from her seat. Bowing her head, she then turns around to go away.

"Ah, before you go. Me and Teruo will be attending the annual PMC meeting that's next week, and you and Odysseus will come along as representatives of your squads."

Miho turns to look at the Director in slight surprise, and so does Misako.

"That's all for now. You may go."

Miho bows once again and goes away, leaving the Director and Misako alone inside the office.

"You never told me you and Teruo would be attending," Misako says surprised as the Director leans back on his chair.

"It was a last minute decision. Teruo will get the encryption key for the black box there."

"So he did manage to pull a few strings for it."

"Indeed he did."

"Still, that's not the only reason, is it?"

The Director lightly chuckles at this, before turning his head to look at Misako.

"Nothing ever evades you, Misako. But you are right, it isn't only the encryption key. With how things are moving, we might need to get a third squad up and running, as well start upgrading some of our equipment, and the annual PMC meeting is the perfect place for this, since it has turned into a type of expo in the last years.

"That's true. If there is another war, we'll most likely get flooded with work again," Misako says and sighs at the end. "Do you think Japan will be able to even handle a war at its current state?"

The Director remains silent for a moment, grabbing the document he was reading previously to continue from where he left off.

"The right question isn't if Japan can handle another war, Misako, but rather what is it willing to sacrifice in order to win. Because that's the only option we've been left with. Either win, or die."

* * *

**A/N: After almost a whole month, the third chapter is finally done! Took me a lot longer to write it despite having more free time thanks to the whole COVID-19 situation. I hope everyone is doing fine by the way despite the whole pandemic that has spread everywhere. Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter. Follow and favorite if you are interested on how the story will progress, throw a review if you have any comments to make about it, and send a PM if you have any questions. English isn't my main language, so expect mistakes and awkward grammar here and there. Thank you very much for reading the chapter, have a good day/night and stay safe! And remember to excersice social distancing to lower the chances of catching the virus!**


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